The present invention relates, in general, to cutting tools, and in particular to tools which can be folded into a compact arrangement for easy transportation.
Numerous types of tools, which fold into compact forms, are well known. For example, one type of tool is a folding knife having a releasable lock for holding the knife blade in an open position and for holding the blade in a closed position. In the closed position the cutting edge is housed in a knife handle. Such knifes may have one or more blades and may have other folding tools such as files, saw blades, scissors etc. A locking device is often provided to hold the knife or other tool in a fully open usable position. This locking mechanism or other device is also used to lock the knife or tool into a stored position typically inside the handle of the instrument.
Another tool is a multiple function combination business travel tool in which one of the tools is a scissors. This tool includes the first handle having a first implement channel and a first scissors channel, and a second handle having a second implement channel and a second scissors channel. First and second scissors blades are mounted respectively to the first and second handles at first and second axis, respectively. A scissors fulcrum axis rotatably mounts the first scissors blade to the second scissors blade. The first and second scissors blades are contained within the first and second scissors channels in an undeployed configuration. When the scissors blades are deployed, the first and second scissors blades are rotated about the first and second axis, respectively. This scissors tool is representative of those in the art and is deployable into only a single operating position. It is also to be noted that the axis for the blades is different than that for the attachment of the blades to the respective handles.
Although known types of the folding scissors are useful for certain applications, they have major disadvantages in that they are typically bulky and clumsy to use in that they do not have a normal scissors configuration. In addition it is a drawback of the prior art folding scissors that the scissors have only one open orientation. Different types of cutting functions require that the handles have different angles with respect to the blades.
Thus there exists a need for an improved folding scissors, which provides ease of use with a selectable range of positions of the handles relative to the scissors or knife blades.
One embodiment of the present invention is a cutting tool, or folding scissors, which has first and second knife blades and first and second handles. One feature is that each of the first and second knife blades and first and second handles may be positionable relative to one another. The knife blades and handles thus may effect at least the scissors cutting function in at least one open position of the tool. In particular the first and second knife blades and the first and second handles effect the scissors cutting function in each of a plurality of open positions of the tool. The tool also may have a locking assembly that locks the first knife blade and first handle in at least one first position and then locks the second knife blade and the second handle in at least one second position independently of the first knife blade and first handle. The first and second positions define the open positions of the tool. For multiple open positions the locking assembly locks the first and second knife blades and the first and second handles in different first and second positions.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the first and second knife blades and the first and second handles may all be attached at a common pivot axis. Thus the inventive tool overcomes the drawbacks of the prior art and provides a tool that is simple and straightforward to use, and that operates similar to non-folding type scissors.
Furthermore the cutting tool of the present invention can be adjusted for different types of cutting operations by changing the position of the handles relative to the knife blades.